The whole town was searching for the two missing boys. No one could imagine what had happened to them.
“We shall never see them again!” sobbed their mothers. But they did see them.
That very day, when the little birds had gone to sleep in their nests, and the crickets chirped by the roadside, while night and the stars looked down upon the earth, the two tired and hungry boys appeared.
Their mothers and fathers were overjoyed at their safe return.
All the townspeople crowded about them.
But the people could hardly believe the strange story they told.
“Father Thrift! Father Thrift!” they cried. “Why, it cannot be!”
For this was none other than the quaint old town in which the queer little old man had lived for so many years.
“Upon our word and honor!” said the boys earnestly. “See, we cross our hearts.”